Recollecting the Grenades of life

A ONE woman show set against the backdrop of the Troubles makes for  compelling viewing in Tara McKevitt’s Grenades. Mephisto Theatre Company brings the production to Glór on September 8.
Beginning in 1989, director Caroline Lynch said the play starts with a recollection of childhood. “Nuala Kelly is the main character and she’s played by Emma O’Grady. It opens in a prison and you know she’s waiting for something, but you don’t know who or why. She starts remembering her childhood, talking about her schooldays and her brother. Her brother played Jesus in the passion play in his school and she was convinced that he was actually Jesus. She remembers back to when she was nine and he was 15 or 16. They lived with their mother and grandfather, their father was absent and that caused Nuala a lot problems in school.”
As the play develops, more and more is revealed about the main character and events leading to her imprisonment. While Caroline says there is quite a bit of humour in the play, the second half is rather dark, hardly surprising given the setting.
Obviously Northern Ireland was a highly dysfunctional society as the Troubles raged and the play shows how families got caught up in the situation.
“A lot of it is about childhood, the innocence of childhood and how it can be taken away from you because of the situation that you’re living in. It’s also about love, the love a family has for each other, but they still have to go through a very difficult time. It’s not really political but it’s about how an ordinary family can be caught up in a situation that’s not of their making at all and how they suffer from that.”
Directing a one-person show has advantages of over trying to deal with a larger cast. “I’ve just finished directing a show that had 13 people in it, so it’s kind of interesting to contrast them,” Caroline states adding, “I would say that in directing a one-person show you’re able to give more time to the individual actor. It’s like a teacher having a small class compared to a big class. You get to concentrate on one person and how they work and help them with that”.
There have been a number of one-person shows on Irish stages in recent times and Caroline feels they offer an actor the chance to display their abilities, while requiring some assistance from the audience.
“They’re very enjoyable, you get to see how good an actor is. They can change from one character to another in the blink of an eye. Because there’s only one person you have to let the audience’s imagination carry it as well. They’re very enjoyable to watch because they’re designed around the audience’s imagination and how they can fill it in themselves.”